Molecular farming company Moolec has inserted pig genes into soy beans to generate meaty-tasting proteins that can be grown in plants.

I’m naturally quite cautious about things like this, but I’m curious to hear your thoughts.

  • CoreOffsetOPEnglish
    2·
    6 months ago

    I absolutely agree with that statement. I guess I had assumed, maybe wrongly, that you wouldn’t have to do any of that. Do you know of a source that goes into the specifics?

    • dat_math [they/them]@hexbear.netEnglish
      2·
      6 months ago

      you wouldn’t have to do any of that.

      I would think the animal exploitation is only absolutely necessary early in R&D where they’re still figuring out stuff like which sequences code for production of what proteins, how those are expressed and how these interact with other instructions in the plant dna.

      However, I also expect there’s much more profit to be made in continued testing, more animal-based R&D in the form of trying to translate desirable phenotypes in animal meat to the plant-produced analog, and in selling the protein back to the meat industry who can mix it with similarly graded animal protein and sell it to omnivores as a greenwashed meat product. All I’m trying to say is that I think they should do the R&D without exploiting more animals.

      • davel [he/him]@hexbear.netEnglish
        2·
        6 months ago

        and in selling the protein back to the meat industry who can mix it with similarly graded animal protein

        I can absolutely see this happening. I can also see them slowly replacing the actual meat with more and more nonmeat fillers over time, as fewer and fewer people can even afford meat.

      • CoreOffsetOPEnglish
        1·
        6 months ago

        I also expect there’s much more profit to be made in continued testing, more animal-based R&D in the form of trying to translate desirable phenotypes in animal meat to the plant-produced analog, and in selling the protein back to the meat industry who can mix it with similarly graded animal protein and sell it to omnivores as a greenwashed meat product.

        Reflecting on what we know about the world I’m sure you are correct when it comes to that.

        I was just coming at from the point of view that we probably all know some people in our lives that are never going to go Vegan because it’s the morally correct thing to do. They just don’t care. So, while I wouldn’t support a scenario you described it would still be better for those people to at least transition to something like that.

        I realize it’s far from ideal, and I’m not promoting it, but it would objectively be better than those same people eating tortured baby animals the way humanity does it currently.

        All I’m trying to say is that I think they should do the R&D without exploiting more animals.

        I agree with that.

        I’m hoping that people turn to alternatives as the costs keep rising. I was taking a look at the effects of inflation on groceries and it seems that animal products were the hardest hit. I know so many people that will complain yet still buy at these high prices because of a combination of not caring and being addicted to these foods. If they had an alternative maybe they would opt for it.

        Any drop in demand is a compounding effect. It’ll just accelerate the price increases as volume drops and hopefully one day we get to a point where we can extinguish these industries.

        Obviously I realize that’s an optimistic point of view.